106 RATES AND TAXES 



the money should be allotted for specific 

 purposes, and there should be a general 

 central control. Under the present system, 

 there is a certain amount of " free 

 balance " from the assigned taxes, which 

 naturally leads to extravagance, or at 

 any rate, is not used for purely national 

 objects. 



The Agricultural Rates Act was a reversion 

 to the older method of a grant-in-aid, and in 

 this view, the principle so far is sound, but 

 the sums granted are given without proper 

 central control, and without definite appro- 

 priation to specific services. 1 



Moreover, although this Act has redressed 

 so far the inequalities between agriculture 

 and trade in the same rating area, it has done 

 nothing to rectify the disparity of rates in 

 different areas. The Commissioners give 

 some remarkable calculations illustrating the 

 1 P. 117. 



